S2E6: Tonight’s episode of Hawaii Five-0 kicks off with the most unexpected of scenes: McGarrett in the ring fighting against mixed martial arts legend Chuck Liddell. We don’t find out until the end of the episode how that bout came to be. It’s all about what happened 48 hours earlier …
A beloved local restaurateur, Jake Griffin, is found dead, duct-taped to a chair at the bottom of a pool. As always, the Five-0 gang — which once again includes Kono — tries to track down the perps, and as always, they go looking in some of the wrong places before winding up in the right one.
Initially, their chief suspects are a group of valet drivers at one of the restaurants Griffin owned. It makes sense: Recent home invasions identical to the one that appears to have taken place at Griffin’s house show the drivers making copies of the house keys that belong to the owners of the cars they’re parking; Griffin’s case looks to be similar.
But after apprehending three of the suspects mid-home invasion, McGarrett and Co. learn that although the valet drivers are bad guys indeed, they’re not the bad guys they were looking for.
So it’s onto suspect No. 2 (a while later): a brutish MMA fighter, Borero, who was mentored by the late Griffin and and who McGarrett thinks is in possession of the murder weapon, which is, after all, found in the front seat of his Jeep.
However, following a lengthy chase sequence, apprehension, and questioning, McGarrett and Danny discover with certainty that Borero had nothing but respect and admiration for Griffin — not to mention an alibi. And upon further explanation by the fighter, they realize they’ve been barking up the wrong tree all along, as the murderer, it turns out, is Griffin’s own brother-in-law, who “wanted a little something” (read: money) from his wealthy relative and murdered Griffin — and made it look like the aforementioned recent string of home-invasion robberies/murders — after his plan went awry. He submits to Five-0 without a fight, but not without tears of shame.
Which brings us to the opening fight scene with McGarrett and Chuck Liddell. Turns out McGarrett, ever the gentleman, was fighting for charity, in place of the injured Borero, who was supposed to be in the ring that day.
Naturally, though, the episode didn’t end after the fight: Wo Fat strikes again, killing the elderly, wheelchail-bound Mikoto as a message to Joe and McGarrett. At which point Joe urges McGarrett yet again to really think about whether he wants to cotninue investigating his father’s fateful meeting with Wo Fat and Governor Jameson.
TOP FIVE MOMENTS FROM TONIGHT’S EPISODE
1. McGarrett’s fight sequence with Liddell — which opens the episode — namely the point 10 seconds in when McGarrett gets the spit knocked out of him. In slo-mo.
2. The second, very early on, when we see special crossover guest star Kensi Blye (Daniela Ruah), from NCIS: LA. Didn’t think we forgot about that, did you?! Sadly, her role spans no more than one scene and a few minutes.
3. When Joe walks into his apartment, the ominous music tells us something’s fishy. Which is further confirmed when we see a shadowy figure in front of the camera lens that turns out be Wo Fat. Tresspassing! What’s cool, though, is the fact that Joe keeps a gun in his freezer for just such an occasion.
4. The insane — and slightly inane — fight that ensues after No. 4. Which Joe narrowly survives, thanks to a knife-set block.
5. The rooftop-hopping chase scene between McGarrett and Borero — and Danny, who couldn’t keep up on foot so took his car. It winds up in a surfboard warehouse, where McGarrett pins Borero MMA style.
